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TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager.

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~ Maintain Canadian standards

EMBERS of the St. Laurent
government all refuse to heed
the menacing rise of unemploy-
Ment, seeking to evade their re-

sponsibilities by describing * it as.

“seasonal,’”’ ‘‘temporary,’” © ‘‘nor
mal.” Hard- -pressed, Labor Mni-

~ Aster Gregg has to admit it is only

“half normal,’’

Means, .

While St. Laurent and his cab
inet blind themselves to. the prob-

lem, an ugly pattern is beginning
to emerge: in British Columbia
and other provinces where unem-
ment is dangerously high — the
Pattern of the old Hungry Thir-
ties relief handouts and the reliet
standard of subsistence.

whatever ye

This product of provincial
Municipal ‘“‘coordination,” admin-
istered through various “‘welfare’
agencies, is aimed at taking the
sharp ‘edge of hunger from the
unemployed. It’s the old half-a-
loaf-is-better - than - none dictum,
which not only appeases hunger
With a helping of ‘“‘charity’’ soup
but also is aimed at preventing

militant action and organization
by the unemployed to win their
just rights.

The year 1954 is not 1930.
Then, militant organized labor,

employed and unemployed alike,

under the leadership of the Com-
munists, fought for unemployment
insurance, against ‘‘Iron Heel’’
Bennett's 25 - cent - a- day slave
camps, against repressive legisla-
tion such as Section 98 of the
Criminal Code, and for a measure
of cash relief to enable an unem-
ployed Canadian worker to regain
his dignity, free from the stigma
of the “‘charity’’ soup kitchen and
the grocery handout.

Today there is a billion dollars

in the federal Unemployment In-

surance fund, paid in by workers
to meet just such an emergency as
now exists.

That money must be returned
to Canada’s unemployed workers

—at weekly rates equal to or in.
excess of the $24 now being paid -
to workers who have not as yet
- exhausted their unemployment in- ,

‘surance benefits, until jobs have
been provided.

NEWS ITEM: Howe tells jobless to look for another job.

Any relief or other measures
undertaken by the provincial or
municipal governments, or joint
ly, must be based upon maximum
federal unemployment insurance
benefits. Anything less is merely
providing a loophole
which the St. Laurent government
may escape its responsibilities.

In labor’s fight against the men-
ace of unemployment there must
be no slacking up, no substitu
tion of relief standards for the

NOT cRNA ILL

Tom
McEwen

E Pacific Tribune’s campaign to raise ~

the sum of $18,000 to keep rolling
through 1954 is off to a good start. The’
dollars from readers and supporters in
temote corners of B.C. are already be-
Sinning to tally up.

' There’s’ an old saying, “March comes
in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb.”

€ opening days of this campaign, al-

though not particularly lion-like, already

- Make a brave showing, both in tributes
to the PT and in hard cash. And we

are confident there will be nothing lamb-

like about the campaign when it reaches

the half-way mark at the end of March.
One of these tributes says: —

“Keep punching as Ol’ Bill did, we

can’t lose now. The sewer press has.
all the dough and all the political re- »
sources—but it can’t afford to tell the

truth. That’s where our little paper
has it all over them.. Enclosed is $5

_ out of the pension I get from St. Laur-
ent. If I could vote myself an income

doost like he did I would send you a
lot more.”

One of the foulest’ Se ever com-
mitted by g modern state against human
decency and dignity—the court “kid-

Rapping” of Michael and Robert Rosen-
2, orphaned children of Julius and

_ Bthel Rosenberg, got nine lines in some

of Canada’s biggest dailies.
_ To have written the full story of ‘this

interests of the class these papers serve.

€ruel action would not have been in the.

Others wrote more, filling their story :

with blatant lies as a justification for
“legal” fidnapping and child persecu-

tion. ‘

Only in a paper like the Pacific Tribune
can the whole truth of this persecution
be brought home to the people.

The daily papers these past two weeks
- have been full of praise for Prime Min-

ister St. Laurent’s mission. They have

told in glowing terms of the many ban-.

quets tendered him by. his fellow-
NATOists and weported the speeches he

-has made in Paris, Rome, New Delhi

and elsewhere. Wordy portraits have
been drawn of a Canadian “ambassador

of goodwill.” “It sounds fine—if you

don’t look behind the- headline curtains.
But it has little to do with the real truth

of St. Laurent’s world junket. :

Only in papers like the PT can the
people get a true picture of the -job St.
Laurent is doing for his Washington
mentors—to sell Yankee imperialism in
Europe and Asia as “benevolent and un-
selfish,’ concerned only with exporting
a “Christian way-of-life’ and.the con-
cepts of “Liberte, Egalite and Fratern-
ite,’ but never, never with the cash
register and a big stick,

To state, as the Prime Minister is re-
ported as having done in New Delhi, that
the foreign policy of the McCarthy-
Fisenhower government is “wholly un-
selfish,” is like saying that Al Capone
was the most law-abiding “Christian”

- in Christendom. ,

Uncle Louis may like his job. “Every

- man to his taste,” as the saying goes.

Our job is to keep the PT rolling each
week, to guarantee that a percentage of
the people will have an opportunity of
estimating such “jobs” from a source

_ other than the subsidized scribblers of

the kept press, whose business is to ob-
secure conspiracies against t interests
40k the common people with plain and
fancy lying.

~ ‘We expect to wind up this peor

campaign at the end of April well over
the top. Already our readers are giving

through

standards workers have establish-
ed by union struggle and organi-
zation. To follow up the repre-
sentations made to the government
by the TLC and CCL executives,
trade union “‘committeés of
action’’ should be set up to win
extended and increased unemploy-
ment benefits—and jobs. What
is “‘halfnormal’’ to Labor Min-
ister Gregg spells disaster for B.C.

and Canada if it is Hoss to pass
unchecked. -

us an indication that another great ‘vic-

tory for truth is in the making.

Ex-superintendent of the RCMP, John
Leopold, alias Jack Esselwein, is at it
again. Last week this RCMP stooge is
alleged to have given a “special” inter-
view to the Vancouver News-Herald on

the strength and characteristics of the

“Reds” in Canada and the USA. .
In our own country, according to Leo-

pold, there are supposed to be “50,000 *

subversive Reds in Canada, in addition
to the membership of the Labor- Progres-
sive party.” ;

Also we were glad to hear that “The
Communists in Canada are more firmly
established and better disciplined than
in the U.S. ... where many of the party
members or sympathizers are wishy-
washy .

What ean Esselwein forgot to men-
tion was that the McCarthy witchhunters
now hold these “wishy-washy” elements
in the highest .esteem, carting them
around the country to serve as “expert”
or “friendly” witnesses in doing a smear
job on some American citizen, who may
have thought he or she had the right
to read, study or think freely in that
“land of the free.”

Leopold, alias Esselwein, is ‘D slouch
at the wishy-washy game himself. Forti-
fied by the atmospheric glamor of an
RCMP uniform, plenty of John Barley-
corn, and copious draughts of water
when the decorum of a law court pro-
hibits anything stronger, Esselwein lied
many a Canadian worker into deporta-
tion during the Hungry Thirties — and
into the hands of the Nazi hangmen of
Europe.

Like all stoolpigeons in the service of
a state which fears the march of pro-
gressive ideas, Leopold’s main qualifica-
tion, like that of the late and unlamented
Herr Goebbels, is to invent big ones —
and tell them often. The News-Herald
“special” is a fair run-of-the-mill sample.

- It is neither new nor true, but it is Es-
selwein at his aes

Pony years ago

(From the files of the B.C. Federationist,
March 6, 1914)

A provincial Royal Commission on:
labor brought down a report condemning
establishment of a minimum wage and,
opposing the eight-hour day. It did, how."
ever, recommend a system of workmen’s
compensation, long demanded by the
trade union movement. Commenting on
the commission’s report, the B.C. Feder-
ationist said: “It is disappointing to the
working men and women of this prov-
ince in that, although it deals with a
large number of subjects, its recom-
mendations are so commonplace as to
make it appear almost infantile.”

Fifteen years ago

(From the files of the People’s Advocate,
March 3, 1939)

Grant McNeil (CCF, North Vancouver)
submitted eight questions to the King
government in the House of Commons
seeking to ascertain the extent of Japan-
ese espionage and economic penetration
in British Columbia. The questions were
prompted by a series of articles written

‘by Hal Griffin, editor of the People’s -

Advocate, drawn to McNeil’s attention

by H. B. Moore, secretary of the Powell

River local of the International Brother-
hood of Papermakers.

?

Ten years ago
(From the files of The People,
March 4, 1944) ‘
In a memorandum to the King govern- —
ment, the Trades and Labor Congress of
Canada stated that “the time for inaug-
uration of a contributory National
Health scheme which would include hos-
pitalization is sear renee

The =a echo Sekioh Columbia
District of the International Mine, Mill
and Smelter Workers held its first con-
vention in Vancouver.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 5, 1954 — PAGE 5